The unexpected
by TamaraneanOnMars
Summary: It's the night after the training exercise from Hell, and Wally spends the night at the Cave. However, he soon finds that it is impossible to sleep after seeing everyone you love die. Songfic. Oneshot. Spitfire. Song is 'Safe And Sound' By Taylor Swift and The Civil Wars.


**I'm really bad with titles.**

**Aha, this is kinda lame. I love Failsafe, it is such a heartbreaking, surprising, clever episode that I find that I am incapable of not writing angst for it. So, here we have some Failsafe angst. And more Spitfire. Can't forget the Spitfire. Once again, lame ending, I know. I always seem to get super lazy near the end. Sorry for any mistakes, but this one is a bit longer than my last, so I guess it's okay. Ish. CC is appreciated, as always!**

**Title: The unexpected**

**Characters/Pairings: Wally, Artemis, Spitfire**

**Summary: It's the night after the training exercise from Hell, and Wally spends the night at the Cave. However, he soon finds that it is impossible to sleep after seeing everyone you love die. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice, any of it's characters, or the song 'Safe and Sound' by Taylor Swift.**

* * *

When I had heard the sound of someone singing, I had never expected it to be _her_.

My eyes flew open to complete darkness. Moonlight seeped through my window and provided slight relief from the pitch black of night. Clothes were thrown around the room; over my chair, which sat in the middle of the room; on a small mountain of things that I had forgotten to put away properly and over the wooden headboard of my bed. The desk was covered in crumpled up paper. My wardrobe had an open backpack hanging on it's metal handle, it's contents threatening to spill on the carpet. I really don't know how it got that messy. I didn't even sleep there often – this was my room at Mount Justice. My room at home felt more...homey. If that makes sense.

I sat up and ran a hand through my hair, wondering what had woken me up. Maybe I was having a nightmare? No, I remember loving my dream. For some reason, a massive hot dog came to mind. Yeah, I definitely liked that dream. Had I banged my head against the headboard? I reached a hand up and rubbed it lightly. No pain. No bump. No sign of any contact with a solid object. Had something startled me awake? The air was still and quiet, but it wasn't eerily quiet – it was pleasantly quiet. Like everything was okay. I swung my legs to sit on the edge of the bed and frowned. Okay, I woke up in the middle of the night, it happens to everyone. So why didn't I want to go back to sleep? Maybe it was just hunger. Yeah, I was just hungry. I would get a midnight snack, and then go back to sleep.

My feet could feel the cold, hard floor of the hallway as I made my way towards the kitchen. I crossed my arms over my chest and unconsciously fiddled with the sleeve of the t-shirt that I had worn to bed. I felt slight guilt for not going home to sleep, which was complete nonsense. I was exhausted. Seeing your team members, the league and innocent citizens die then wake up and be told that it's okay, everyone's alive and to act like you have moved on already would do that to you, I guess. For some reason, I heard someone call it 'the Failsafe incident' – I don't really see where that label came from. Sure, I understand the 'fail', but where was the 'safe'? There was nothing safe about what me and the rest of the team went through. We had seen our mentors and our best friends die, heard their final screams – the feeling was exactly the opposite of 'safe'. With a sigh, I entered the kitchen and tried my best to clear my mind of anything even remotely related to the events of the previous day.

I frowned at the small mess in the kitchen. The fridge seemed emptier. It looked like some cutlery had fallen and had been put back into their containers hastily. The island in the centre of the kitchen had smears of chocolate yoghurt on it that someone had carelessly tried to clean up. They hadn't done a very good job; it looked like half of the yoghurt had spilled onto the smooth surface. I just shook my head and pulled up a kitchen towel to clean it up. After dealing with that – and wondering who had left the mess for a moment. M'gann would never leave the kitchen in a mess, Conner and Kaldur never woke up in the night, ever, Robin had gone home and I didn't think that Artemis would have a midnight snack of chocolate yogurt. So, who was it? - I scanned the contents of the fridge with my eyes. After a second of being torn over cookies or chips, I decided on the chips and pulled them out, closing the fridge behind me.

I took a seat on the island, stuffing a handful of chips in my mouth. After chewing and swallowing, I studied the floor gloomily while eating another couple of chips. I felt no relief from this nagging feeling inside me. With a sigh, I put down the packet and stood. After a moments thought, I grabbed the bag – just in case I got hungry. I thought about going back to bed, but soon decided against it. I had a feeling that I wouldn't be able to sleep. So, I went to the gym. Tiring myself out would help, right?

I could hear singing.

I stopped, nearly at the gym, half-way through chewing a mouthful of chips (It may not be what's keeping me awake, but a guys got to eat). It sounded soft, yet somewhat gravelly, drifting towards me from the gym – that I had figured was empty. The melody was sorrowful, I could tell. I took a step forward, wondering if I should disturb whoever was singing. But they sounded sad, and I had the urge to cheer them up. So I took a step forward, and another, and another. I stepped into the gym and my mouth fell open slightly.

I saw none other than Artemis Crock, sitting on a bench with her back to me, in a purple, sleeveless pyjama top and lilac pyjama shorts. It was evident that she had just woken up, as her clothes were crumpled, and her blonde hair was out of it's usual ponytail and tangled. She was swaying side to side slightly as she sang, her hair just reaching the floor and brushing it as it swayed along with her. Wally stood and watched for a moment, shocked and ever so slightly awed by her singing. He had to admit, she had a nice voice.

'_I remember tears streaming down your face,_

_As I said I'd never let you go,_

_And all those shadows almost killed your light._'

Her voice cracked, and her shoulders slumped slightly. Wally took a few steps towards her, but she still didn't notice his presence.

'_I remember you said,_

_Don't leave me here along,_

_But all that's dead and gone and passed,_

_Tonight._'

Artemis let her face fall into her hands and she let out a shuddery sigh. She didn't sing again for about a minute, like she couldn't bring herself to continue. She hadn't been able to sleep that night. She had tried and tried, but her guilt kept her up. It was all her fault. If she hadn't been so stupid as to get herself killed in that training exercise, the other's wouldn't have lost their grip on reality, and therefore would not have gone through all that pain. When she continued, her voice was muffled by her hands and sounded broken. Wally moved a bit closer.

'_Just close your eyes,_

_The sun is going down._

_You'll be all right,_

_No one can hurt you now._

_Come morning light,_

_You and I'll be_

_Safe and sound._'

Wally was standing right behind her now. Her breath caught in her throat and she froze, fighting back tears. He stared down at her, hardly able to believe what he was seeing. He had never seen Artemis like this. She was always confident in herself, and protected by the emotional barriers she had built around herself. It almost broke his heart to see her sitting there, singing out her feelings.

'_Don't you dare look out your window,_

_Darling, everything's on fire,_

_The war outside our door keeps-_'

She was forced to stop as a sob escaped her and she felt a tear fall onto her hand. She tried to stop herself from crying and to continue.

'_The war outside our door keeps-_'

She sobbed again, but this time they kept coming. Her shoulders shook with silent tears and she let herself cry this time, ripping down the walls she had carefully built around herself. The phrase '_It was my fault,_' echoed through her mind and her sobs escalated. She hated that she had put her team through that much pain. They were her new family, and they were a family that loved her, cared for her, and she had thanked them by being an idiot and ruining everything. Suddenly, she felt someone sit down next to her silently and eyes boring into the side of her head. Without taking her head out of her hands, she said;

"Go away, Wally."

"No."

She groaned at his firm tone. He really wasn't going to budge. She wondered why he even cared. Isn't she the one that ruined everything? Isn't she the reason everything went spiralling out of control? He should be blaming her, not comforting her. And wasn't Wally just dying for reasons to hate her? What happened to that?

"Why do you care, any ways?" She asked, dragging her hands away from her face and looking at him. Wally felt something clamp around his heart at the sadness and...and...guilt in her eyes? Why was she guilty? She missed almost all of it, she had no time to create a reason to be guilty. And her question confused him.

"Why shouldn't I care? You _are_ my team mate, whether I like it or not." He shrugged and she smirked, despite herself, at him. She started to run a hand through her hair, but froze halfway through when Wally spoke again. "What's wrong?"

"You...it's..." She sighed, letting her hand fall by her side and closing her eyes. "It's stupid." Wally noticed some chocolate on her cheek, and inwardly smirked. So Artemis would have a midnight snack of chocolate yogurt. He shuffled over slightly and nudged her with his shoulder, smiling in a goofy way, attempting to cheer her up. He felt that he was failing miserably.

"Tell me, I'm sure its not."

Artemis opened her eyes and raised them to meet his. She almost smiled a his attempts to lighten her mood, but it didn't really work. That guilt was still settled inside her and she wondered if it intended to ever go away. "You really want to know?"

"Mmm-hm!"

"Ugh, okay." She sighed, a hint of a smile in her voice. She looked away and tilted her head so that her hair hid her face, just in case she got emotional or anything. "Well...you know I was first to die, right?" Wally nodded unnecessarily. "Well, then, you also know that it was my fault that you all..." She cleared her throat. "...forgot it wasn't real. So, really, it was my fault. I...I caused you all so much pain. I just...can't forgive myself for that. If I wasn't stupid enough to die, then it would be fine." She stopped, and Wally sensed that she wasn't going to continue.

He frowned sympathetically, one half of him wanting to embrace her one half of him wanting to slap some sense into her. Of course it wasn't her fault! How could she think otherwise? She had died to protect her team, and had wanted them safe, surely that was enough to justify what she had done. He couldn't believe that she doubted that. If anything, he was in the wrong. He had super speed - he had more than enough time to save her, and he even saw that it was about to fire at her, but he just stood there, doing nothing.

"Artemis," He said softly, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder - or, he hoped it was reassuring. Artemis smiled slightly. He didn't need to comfort her, in her opinion, but the fact that he cared seemed to make her feel...warmer. Happier. "You know it wasn't-"

"Wally, stop." She stated, voice firm but thankful. "Don't even try to convince me that it wasn't my fault. It won't work. But..." She hesitated, brushing the hair from her face and sending him a small smile. He pulled his hand back, smiling back, and she still felt the warmth of it on her shoulder. "Thanks. You know, for trying."

"No problem." Wally smiled. He got an idea, and pulled out something. Artemis heard a rustling. "Want some chips?" Artemis laughed, reaching out a hand. Wally gave it to her, and she got a grip on it before placing it beside her.

"Don't mind if I do, Wall-man." She smirked, but still seemed troubled. Wally inwardly sighed. He was disappointed that he hadn't been able to stop her from thinking that it was her fault, but he felt himself getting quite sleepy, and that nagging feeling had finally stopped. He stood and yawned.

"I'm gonna go back to bed. Hopefully I might be able to actually fall asleep this time. You going too?" Artemis shook her head, gazing at the floor in front of her.

"Nah, I'm gonna stay here for a bit."

Wally nodded and said goodnight, wondering if he made a difference. After a few moments, Artemis began to hear his retreating footsteps. When they had faded away completely, and she felt that she was alone, she thought of how he had tried to comfort her, how he had smiled at her, how she swore she saw fondness in his eyes, how he _cared_. She took some chips from the bag and popped them in her mouth. She wondered if her and Wally could get on after all. She smiled.

They just might.


End file.
